Spotting Hidden Property Issue

Hiring a building surveyor to inspect a property before you purchase it is a good way to protect yourself against potentially hidden problems. The seller may not have had the property inspected when they chose to put it up for sale, so there could be unknown issues you will have to deal with later. The last thing you want to do is complete the purchase only to find you will need to pay large fees to fix problems that you could have discovered earlier with a survey.

One of the most crucial parts of a building survey is a check of walls and foundations. If there are problems with either of these there could be huge costs to correct the issue, especially when it is caused by subsidence or foundation settlement. In the worst cases it may even make the building uninhabitable.

You can spot some signs of problems by looking for cracks in walls and around windows. Long, wide cracks indicate a potentially serious issue that could be extremely expensive to fix. If there are signs that cracks have been repaired, you should ask about the problem and what work was done. If there is a settlement or subsidence issue, simply patching the cracks over is unlikely to have fixed the problem and it could very well have worsened over time.

Whether you spot signs of trouble or not, it is still advisable to have a survey. The surveyors will know what to look for and will be able to take a much more critical view of the building that will ultimately help you to get a better idea of the condition. When you view properties it is not easy to do a detailed inspection by yourself, so hiring a surveyor brings valuable additional protection and could save you a great deal of money too.

At Patterson Francis & Associates we can provide you with a professional building surveyor in Reading, Maidenhead and any of the surrounding areas. We are proud of our experienced team and the great work they do, and all the reports we produce are high quality and filled with useful information. They are broken down into sections, listing the most important points and providing recommendations for work that needs to be done.